Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Catheters are commonly used in medical practice to examine and treat the heart. They may be inserted into the cardiovascular system of the patient through small punctures in the skin, usually in the neck or groin area. Typically, a catheter includes a catheter sheath carrying several electrodes at the tip of the sheath and a control handle for deflecting the tip of the catheter to steer or guide the catheter. The electrodes attached to the catheter sheath can be used to sense electrical signals to identify particular heart conditions or to treat these conditions.
Some catheters carry a multi-electrode loop or lasso structure at the tip of the catheter sheath. One of the advantages of the multi-electrode loop is that sensing can be achieved over a larger area. For example, electrical signals can be sensed around an entire pulmonary vein. Because each biological site is unique in teams of dimensions and geometry, a physician may have to use multiple catheters having different characteristics during a procedure. Multiple different catheters varying in size or shape may be used in order to access the desired part of the anatomy. Using multiple catheters and sequentially removing and inserting them can be difficult and time-consuming. It is also possible that the loop structure snags on tissue while the physician uses the catheter during a medical procedure.